Catching up with Chip Ganassi Racing Managing Director Mike Hull

ROGER:

This is Roger Penske and you're listening to Pit Pass Indie, sponsored by Penske Truck Rental.

BRUCE:

IndyCar fans, it's time to start your engines. Welcome to Pit Pass Indy, a production of Evergreen Podcast. I'm your host, Bruce Martin, a journalist who regularly covers the NTT IndyCar Series. Our goal at Pit Pass Indy is to give racing fans and insiders view of the exciting world of the NTT IndyCar Series in a fast-paced podcast featuring interviews with the biggest names in the sport. I bring nearly 40 years of experience covering IndyCar and NASCAR, working for such media brands as NBCSports.com, SI.com, ESPN SportsTicker, Sports Illustrated, AutoWeek and SpeedSport. So let's drop the green flag on this episode of Pit Pass Indy. Welcome to Pit Pass Indy presented by Penske Truck Rental as we continue our fourth season of giving IndyCar fans a behind-the-scenes look at the NTT IndyCar Series and the drivers and teams that compete in the Indianapolis 500. Because of the Olympic Games in Paris, and IndyCar's television partner at NBC is broadcasting the games, IndyCar series teams and drivers get a rare break in the schedule for this point in the season. PitPass Indy isn't taking any time off, however, as the show continues to give IndyCar fans exclusive interviews with the biggest names in the series. That will continue during the Olympic break. This week's show includes an interview with Chip Ganassi Racing Managing Director Mike Hall. He oversees team owner Chip Ganassi's five-car IndyCar Series team and calls the race strategy for six-time NTT IndyCar Series champion Scott Dixon on the number nine PNC Bank Honda. Here is my exclusive interview with Mike Hall, the Managing Director at Chip Ganassi Racing for PitPass Indy. it might be the olympic break in the mid-season but it's never a break for our next guest it's chip ganassi racing managing director mike hall mike we've got something a little unique this year because the television partner of indycar is also the broadcaster in the United States of the Olympic games in Paris, IndyCar and NASCAR get a couple of weekends off. And the way the season has gone this year, how important is that, that some of your crew guys have been able to take a break or at least sleep in their own bed for a couple of weeks?

MIKE:

Well, I think it's really nice, uh, uh, that they do get, uh, almost three weeks of time to themselves or time not have to travel. That's really probably the key to answer your question, Bruce.

BRUCE:

This won't happen every year. Beginning next year, IndyCar moves over to Fox, where 19 IndyCar events, including two days of Indianapolis 500 pole qualifications, will be on Fox. So it'll be back to a normal schedule. But when you're managing a race team and trying to keep in the rhythm of the series, do you like it this way or do you wish that there were a few races that didn't cause such a big gap?

MIKE:

Well, I guess I could take the party line and answer the question by saying that the schedule has been determined for us for quite a long time based on trying to stay out of the NFL football schedule. So IndyCar has a tough time adding more races than they've already added because there's only so many weeks for us to be able to take full advantage of Which is the best way to do it, frankly, because we want the best opportunity, especially going forward with Fox Sports, to be on network television. So we're looking forward to that.

BRUCE:

As for yourself, are you taking any time off? Are you going to be basically taking care of things at Chip Ganassi Racing in Indianapolis?

MIKE:

Well, our sports car team is racing. Our IMSA sports car team is racing this weekend, this coming weekend at Road America. So we're busy with that. We have two tests coming up, but we have a rookie test at Gateway at the end of this week for Leinitz and for Kiffin. And we have a tire test at Nashville in a week's time with Scott Dixon. So we've got things to do and a little bit of preparation coming for the next few weeks as well as Uh, organizing everything from the past few races.

BRUCE:

As the series resumes, the championship will be decided over the next five races. You're in a position where two of your drivers are in the top three. Alex below is the leader. He leads will power of team Penske. And then four points behind willpower in third place is six time IndyCar series champion, Scott Dixon. You have to feel pretty good about Chip Ganassi racing's chances of winning the championship in 2024.

MIKE:

We do feel good about that. Um, I think the mark of, uh, of any racing team in any series is, can they be consistent by running at the front to have an opportunity to win a championship? And, uh, we're doing that this year. Uh, we have opportunity to do that. We have an opportunity for the rookie of the year between two of our drivers too. And. So we've got a lot on the main burner here to accomplish at four locations, five races coming up, all terrific racetracks and ones that should help us to determine a championship by whomever wins it.

BRUCE:

Now, the interesting thing, when you look at the three drivers or four of the top five drivers, Alex Pillow has two wins. Will Power has two wins. Scott Dixon at 43 has two wins. He certainly isn't slowing down. Colton Hurd of Andretti Global won his first race, the last race at Toronto. And Pat O'Ward of Arrow McLaren's got two wins. And if you go even deeper, Sixth place. Scott McLaughlin's got two wins. There really isn't a driver out there that's been dominating in terms of number of victories, but I guess you have to look at Alex and see this unbelievable consistency that the kid from Spain has once again, that has put him in a position to dictate the championship.

MIKE:

Well, you named a five driver. I think it was five. You can name five drivers there. not only capable of winning, are worthy of winning and have won. And I think it's really a competitive series that might be overused by some people, but I think that's a reality. And it just seems, it's obvious that you can't coast, gather points and win a championship. You also have to run at the front and win. And I think that means it's earned. It's earned by the team. It's earned by the driver. It's earned by the teammates for that matter. Uh, so at the end of the year, whichever of those five drivers, or I don't, I don't know, mathematically, if it's another one from the outside has the opportunity to win, but any of the, any of them are deserving and, uh, we'll see what, uh, what faith has in store for us.

BRUCE:

In 2023, Alex below won the championship in part because his Worst finish was an eighth. There weren't any other drivers in contention for the championship that had a worse finish better than that. This year, he had a 16th at Detroit uncharacteristically crashed in the first race of the doubleheader at Iowa Speedway on a short oval, but he came back the next day and finished second. Short ovals used to be what he admitted was his weak point, but now he is a contender to win on the short ovals. Just how has he improved himself on the short ovals so dramatically?

MIKE:

I think it has a lot, I think it's deeper than that, Bruce. I don't think we, we, I don't think as a team, uh, we've been that good on short ovals. Um, we, we certainly improved ourselves as seen in Iowa this year. We work really, really hard on that to try to understand why and how we should do a better job. I think Alex has been there, and he's done really, really well with what we've had to give him, and we gave him a great car at Iowa, and Dixon, for that matter, had a great car at Iowa, too, and so did our other guys. So, we'll see what unfolds here as we go forward with the oldest who remain.

BRUCE:

Now, with Scott Dixon, once again, he's in contention for a championship. Should he get it, it would be a record-tying seventh IndyCar Series championship, which would tie him with the legendary AJ Foyt for the most in IndyCar history. PNC Bank has started a marketing campaign involving their banking called Brilliantly Boring, which they tie in a little bit with Scott Dixon. Your relationship with Scott Dixon goes well over 20, 25 years. The two of you have been together. And in a lot of ways, I certainly wouldn't call him boring, but the way he's been able to sometimes master the art of the overcut, of fuel savings, of going fast enough to stay ahead while saving fuel proves that this guy is just a master at that type of racing. But what's your reaction, though, to the brilliantly boring campaign and the fact that the PNC Bank admits that it was inspired by Scott Dixon?

MIKE:

Well, I'm glad I was inspired by Scott Dixon, because we owe everything that we do these days to PNC, because they're a fantastic partner. And they're more than a partner. They support in every way, shape, and form who Chip Ganassi Racing is and how Chip Ganassi races. We race with the same integrity they do as a financial institution. In terms of Scott, he set the fastest lap at Toronto, a street course. So I don't know how he saves fuel and sets the fastest lap. Maybe somebody should look into that. Because what he knows how to do is race cars. And for us, this is really a simple thing, Bruce. We just race cars at Chip Ganassi Racing. If it's boring, we're glad to win the way we do.

BRUCE:

Well, no race is ever really boring when you think about it, because they're out there risking a lot to win a race. Scott's case, though, I've always portrayed him as a driver who really makes difficult things look easy. Would you agree with that?

MIKE:

Well, I don't know. From my seat, there's some days in the timing stand that I need a seatbelt. I don't know how easy it makes it look to you, but it looks pretty hard to me. And what he does is he's the master of making things hard look easy. And he's done that for a long, long time. And as long as he wants to do it, I want to ride with him.

BRUCE:

But the last couple of years, the star of the series has been Alex Polo, and he's already got two IndyCar series championships. He could get a third one this year. What is it about Alex that makes him so great?

MIKE:

He's a student of the game. He gives back to his teammates. He's totally unselfish and he understands how to define the trouble that's in front of him and stay away from it. He's a great race driver and the crossover presently with where he is in his career with the team that he's with is making a large difference for him going forward and people will look back on him in a similar manner they look on many many of the other great IndyCar drivers as time goes on. He has a a wide berk to to make a large difference for chip ganassi racing himself and indycar going forward and it's been well documented from come on all the way back to 2022 when

BRUCE:

It appeared that he was trying to leave to go to arrow McLaren. And then all of a sudden he realized, Hey, I've got a great opportunity where I'm at. Chip came to you at the end of the 2022 season at Laguna Seca and said, I'm not so sure we've lost this guy. Things came back around and Alex said, you know, I can't leave these guys. I've got, you know, one of the best things going out here of any combination in the IndyCar, just the way that that appeared to be going and then the way it came back around in chip ganassi racing's favor how opportunistic was that or how strange was that because we've seen some drivers switch teams this year and going to the other team didn't really turn out to be um better than they thought it would be but you know that we're shoveling ground that we've already talked about i

MIKE:

I would rather look at the situation like this. Everybody made the right decision. And I think the decision was made because of the off-track interaction that directly reflects what happens on the racetrack. And we're happy that Alex made the decision to race IndyCars, first of all, and continue to race IndyCars with Chip Ganassi Racing. And he needs sunglasses for the future here at Chip Ganassi Racing, so we'll just stay after that.

BRUCE:

We'll be right back to Pit Pass Indy after this short break.

SPEAKER_00:

This is Will Power of Team Penske, and you're listening to Pit Pass Indy presented by Penske Truck Rental.

BRUCE:

Welcome back to Pit Pass Indy presented by Penske Truck Rental. Here's the rest of my interview and my call the managing director of Chip Ganassi Racing. Then let's start shoveling ground on another area. Another driver you have, Marcus Armstrong, has shown some dramatic improvement this year, including a fifth place at Toronto, a third place at Detroit, another fifth place at the Indianapolis Grand Prix back in May. What has the progress been like for you that you've recognized with Marcus Armstrong?

MIKE:

I think any young race driver that starts in IndyCar racing in their very first year, the most important thing for them assuming that they have the ability to get the job done for the partner, for the owner, for the team, is to race every lap at every racetrack so that when they come back in the second year, they can concentrate on what comes next, which is racing IndyCars successfully by knowing how to get through the terrain of the racetrack itself. And that's what we're seeing in Marcus. He has the ability to get it done. He has the ability to win. He also is a very, very unselfish teammate. He gives and receives on an equal basis. He gives back. And what we're seeing now is a good progress report on Marcus Armstrong, certainly.

BRUCE:

This year, Chip Ganassi Racing has also taken a step to bring in some younger talent. Linus Lundqvist, has joined the team, drives the number eight American Legion Honda. He's already got a pole and also Kiffin Simpson is driving the number four Honda for Chip Ganassi Racing. Young kid from Cayman Islands, Barbados, but he goes, his racing career started rather early. What do you see as the progress these two drivers have made in their rookie seasons?

MIKE:

I think it's very comparable. If we would go back one year and look at where Marcus Armstrong was a year ago, uh, where they were racing in the races, how they qualified, how they raced themselves, how they raced as, as those individual races went on. I think that Kiffin and, uh, and Linus are very, very similar in terms of result. Uh, they've, they've achieved an awful lot this year. And the proof will be where they are a year from today. If we have this interview a year from today for 60% through the race season, it would be a good conversation to have.

BRUCE:

Now, generally, you pay attention to the drivers on your team, but I'm going to bring up a driver on another team that's having a really good year, especially when you consider everything he's gone through with his wife's recovery and everything, but that's willpower to be second in the standings with two wins. This guy is climbing up the ranks. He's in some very impressive category. Now, as far as career victories, the only drivers that have more than him are Mario Andretti, Scott Dixon, and AJ Foyt. How amazed are you that Will Power's been able to put a season together the way he has this late in his career?

MIKE:

I don't know how you put amazed and surprised together because I'm not surprised. He has such natural ability and he transfers that ability onto the racetrack for an entire race segment, and he compiles those race segments one by one to get to the end. That's what's in common with the drivers you just mentioned. With Mario, with AJ, with Dixon, any champion, you could go back in time and look at others and find the same thing in common. But what I like about him, and I don't want to use the word willpower, because that's his name, but he has such a measured aggressive ability to be able to get the job done under the worst circumstance. And he transfers that within his team to get the most out of his team. And I wish I would have had the opportunity to work with him at some point in my life, because I think it would be well worth the time to do that.

BRUCE:

There's always a segment of older IndyCar fans that always use the term heroes that, you know, when the series used to have heroes, whether it be AJ Foyt and Mario Andretti or the answers. But in my mind, aren't Scott Dixon and will power today's heroes, the drivers that 30 years from now, people will be saying, remember back when these guys raced.

MIKE:

They should, um, But I think you and I are too close to it, Bruce. We'll look back and say that too. When you get to be the age that I am, you've been lucky enough to look at drivers like Mario when they were in their prime or AJ when he was in his and many, many others. And it's easy to look back and do a direct comparison to the drivers that are on the IndyCar grid now. And those two names certainly deserve a spot there.

BRUCE:

Now, one of the other things that I've always liked about our conversations with you is you have a very good 35,000 foot view of the IndyCar series. And this year they took some bold steps with the hybrid assist engine, which was delayed until the July 7th Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio. Wouldn't you know it, the first one to have an issue with it ends up being Scott Dixon when the engine discharged on the parade lap. But what are your thoughts on the hybrid engine? Is it too quick for people to jump to a conclusion about whether this thing is good for the series or not?

MIKE:

I think, I think it's good for the series to answer your question. Um, I think any time that you start something new, whether it be a new car, a new engine, a new engine formula, a new tire, you name it, it's not gonna be without issue. But I think going forward, IndyCar needs to make a statement about its oneness with technology, the technology that's being advanced by the automotive industry. Hybrid happens to be one of those, not the only one, but one. And so IndyCar's doing the right thing by being aligned with hybrid technology going forward.

BRUCE:

Have you seen the hybrid engine improve since it debuted on July the 7th? Do you see less issues or are there still a few things that have been, that you see popped up in the races at Iowa and at Toronto?

MIKE:

Not a lot, really, to tell you the truth. I mean, IndyCar, Honda, and Chevrolet in combination, have alignment with each other, work really, really hard to solve the issues. I think there still will be some problems. I don't think there's any question about that. We can't have our head buried in the sand on this thing, but I think the partnership of Chevrolet, Honda, and IndyCar is good here. They work well together, and they're solving the problems that have come along. And by the time we get ready to race in 2025, It'll be, we won't be talking about hybrid, we'll be talking about something else.

BRUCE:

And how does IndyCar improve the horsepower to weight ratio? The hybrid assist is an extra hundred pounds added to the vehicle, doesn't produce a lot more horsepower when you take into account the extra weight of the hybrid assist unit. How does IndyCar improve that to get more horsepower out of the extra hundred pounds that's been added to the car?

MIKE:

I think we need a new car, and we need one as soon as they can decide to make it happen. I think that solves the problem really for the long term. They're talking about a car in 27, but somebody needs to push the button and make it happen.

BRUCE:

Have you been privy to any of those meetings? Because some have said IndyCar's pretty far down the road on looking at that new car. Where do you see it?

MIKE:

I haven't. But my understanding is that they're making decisions about having a new car for us. So we'll wait and see what happens.

BRUCE:

And another important issue is the charter system. And you spoke with me at Iowa about why It's important to get that out now so that you can go to your sponsors and tell them why this is important because you said this is the time of the year when next year's business is being discussed.

MIKE:

Well I think that anybody that IndyCars to be financially viable need to be able to plan for the long term. The charter system has been discussed for a while and it's our understanding that paperwork is going to come to us in the near term. And I think it does need to happen because I think what the charter system is going to do is it's going to provide unrealized worth to the team owners and to the teams. I think it heightens the value of the series. And when that happens, it puts us in a better position combined with network television for 2025 to be able to find stronger partners, better partners, a more independent resource that we presently aren't privy to. And I think the charter system will do that. And combined with Mr. Penske's leadership, I think that's a really big step forward. And the sooner the better for us, the sooner we're able to plan more fully and we're looking forward to it.

BRUCE:

So your understanding is that when Mark Miles, the CEO of Penske Entertainment, met individually with each team owner, they all have a consensus. It's just a matter of getting the paperwork finalized?

MIKE:

I don't think that I'm a spokesperson for that because I'm not an owner. You know, I represent Chip Ganassi Racing, but not at Chip's level. And so I think that the sooner that it's realized for us, the better we can plan.

BRUCE:

And finally, next year, the series is moving over to have 19 network opportunities on Fox, the big Fox, not FS1 or FS2. It's going to be Fox Sports. How important is that to have an entire season on the same network, the same channel?

MIKE:

Well, if I was a simple mathematician and I looked at what our network ratings were this year for every network race that we had with NBC. And I just took that number and added to it the additional network races we're gonna have next year. That in itself is a big step up. It's a big deal. It's a long-term agreement. Fox Sports is really behind this thing. They're gonna push this thing in areas that none of us are probably even aware of at this point. They're gonna put us on the map. And I think it's what IndyCar has been asking for for a long time. And Penske Entertainment has worked really, really hard to make it a reality. And everyone that supports and works within IndyCar Racing, everybody that watches IndyCar Racing, The fans that want to find us on a Fox affiliate can now find us and it's a bright future for Chip Ganassi Racing and IndyCar when things like this happen.

BRUCE:

Well, Michael, I definitely appreciate you taking some time out to talk to us during the break, even though, as we all know, in IndyCar racing, even during a break, there's a lot of work to be done. And I'm sure that you, as the managing director at Chip Ganassi Racing, has been very busy getting ready for the stretch run of the season. Good luck in the championship. You've got a couple of really talented drivers in Alex Pillow and Scott Dixon in the top three fighting it out over the next five races. And thank you for joining us today on Pit Pass Indy.

MIKE:

Thank you, Bruce. And thanks to everybody that listened to this. Thanks for your support of IndyCarRacing. We're going in the right direction.

BRUCE:

And that puts a checkered flag on this edition of Pit Pass Indy. We want to thank our guest, Chip Ganassi Racing Managing Director Mike Hall, for joining us on today's podcast. Along with loyal listeners like you, our guests help make Pit Pass Indy, presented by Penske Truck Rental, your path to victory lane in IndyCar. On the highways, the raceways and every pit stop in between, Penske Truck Rental keeps you moving forward. Gain ground with Penske. For more IndyCar coverage, follow me at X, previously known as Twitter, at BruceMartin, one word, uppercase B, uppercase M, underscore 500. This has been a production of Evergreen Podcast. A special thanks to our production team, executive producers are Bridget Coyne and Gerardo Orlando. Recordings and edits were done by me, Bruce Martin, and final mixing was done by Dave Douglas. Learn more at evergreenpodcast.com. Until next time, be sure to keep it out of the wall.